One of the unexpected casualties of the London riots was independent music. While looting took place, property was destroyed, people were injured or worse, a fire started by rioters engulfed the Sony DADC warehouse in Enfield, a 20,000 square metre building which housed 1.5 million CDs and vinyl releases. A large quantity of DVD stock was also said to be destroyed. Two 17-year-olds and an 18-year-old were arrested on suspicion of arson.

The warehouse served as the stock HQ for PIAS, who distribute albums on behalf of over 150 independent labels including such influential names as 4AD, Warp Records, Beggars Banquet (who lost a total of 750,000 CDs), Ninja Tune, Domino Records, Jagjaguar, Drag City, Matador and Sub Pop. Artists affected include Arctic Monkeys, Bon Iver, Adele, Sufjan Stevens, Crystal Castles, Franz Ferdinand, Joanna Newsom, Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip and hundreds more.

While insurance of the warehouse should cover the cost price of the inventory destroyed by these labels, many of them are now left with little physical stock to sell and a delay until new copies can be made available again. It’s a precarious position to be in for many labels who operate on a very tight budget. So, the internet sprang up in support of the little guy in an already unstable industry.

The editor of UK music website Drowned in Sound’s Sean Adams in the aftermath said that a lot of those labels have changed his life. So he started a Google Docs spreadsheet detailing artists affected, website and social network info and digital purchase links. A team of music people from around the world worked on the data over the course of a day and the result was comprehensive info on all labels affected http://bit.ly/PIASdoc. (more…)

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